Reversal of Fortune Page #8

So, what was he up to, Alan?

Who was he working for?

Damned if I know.

Hope they don't think he worked for you.

- No one's going to...

- Look, I don't think you did it, OK?

But at the Chinese restaurant,

you did duck the big question.

Chuck is our Alexandra Isles expert.

Sunny's aspirin overdose.

Why did she take so many?

What happened? Sunny had a headache?

The headache was Alexandra, right?

Let's hear it, Claus.

Alexandra was spiteful.

On the day of Sunny's aspirin overdose,

she returned some presents

I'd given her, some photographs.

Love letters.

She dropped them off in a shopping bag.

Did Sunny see them?

Sunny was home. I was not.

Alexandra neglected

to address the package to me.

I wanna be left alone with

all those beautiful letters.

What did you do with those letters?

Why did you write those letters?

There's a big difference

between knowing about an affair

and having love letters

crammed down your throat.

It seems that Sunny did care

about your affair. She cared a lot.

Why didn't you tell us?

Everything was open-book.

"Get the best experts."

"I'm not afraid of the truth."

Looks to me like Alexandra

tried to force Sunny into suicide.

Or they plotted it together.

Either way, he's protecting Alexandra

because he still loves her.

And why not? Hey, she's a babe.

Of course I still love her.

And hate her.

Alexandra, Sunny, Andrea...

I love them all.

Being a human being

is very literal.

You're trapped. Time moves

in only one direction: forward.

It's stupid and boring

and results in a lot of silliness.

Example:
the legal process.

In this particular case, a vast amount

of time, effort and money was spent

trying to determine what happened on

those two nights so close to Christmas,

December 26, 1979, December 20, 1980.

Happened right here.

Even now, it all looks the same,

feels the same, smells the same.

If you could just go back in time

and take a peek, you'd know.

And all this would be unnecessary.

All rise!

Hear ye, hear ye. All persons having

business before the Supreme Court

holding in province within and for the

State of Rhode Island may now draw near.

Then again, everyone enjoys a circus.

Be seated.

If the appellant is ready,

you may proceed.

Oral argument will be made

by out-of-state counsel,

Professor Alan Dershowitz.

Your Honors, you may not

like Claus von Bulow.

You may think he is guilty of something.

But I am here to tell you he is innocent.

- Our new evidence...

- Professor.

You know there is no case which allows

you to introduce new evidence on appeal.

There is one, Your Honor.

And you wrote it: Derek.

In Derek, you yourself said

that a case based on

circumstantial theory rather than fact

only stands up if no other theory

makes sense.

The only way to show a better theory

is to present it.

Get on with it, counselor.

The first issue is the encrusted needle.

I hope you will have the courage

to free an innocent man

and remedy a grave injustice.

This will never work.

Too smart for his own good.

Alan says it will work.

If the prosecutor takes the bait.

What do you mean, "bait"?

Argues the evidence.

Your Honors, introduction

of new evidence on appeal

violates every principle of

jurisprudence, every statute,

every precedent, every rule of ethics.

He's nailing us.

I am not going to stand before you

and argue Mr. von Bulow's guilt.

However, I have no choice but to address

Mr. Dershowitz's arguments one by one.

- Bingo.

- First, the encrusted needle.

So, now it's up to the judges.

Tell me what you really think.

I think it's easier to love somebody

than to live with them.

Love is fantasy. Living is work.

I'll say. And those people

don't like to work.

But if you don't do the work, the love dies,

and nobody wants to deal with that one.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

The love died, Sunny couldn't accept it...

so Claus tried to kill her?

- Maybe.

- I don't agree.

Face it. All we had to do was

prove the state made a lousy case.

We didn't prove Claus was innocent.

We couldn't, and he probably isn't.

- You mean you think?

- So he didn't inject Sunny with insulin.

So what? First coma, no problem.

The attending doctor thought it was

caused by hypoglycemia. All right.

But what about the second coma?

I mean, why does Claus act so guilty?

Wouldn't any man feel guilty

if his wife was suicidal?

Yeah. So maybe she took the sleeping

pills with the intention of killing herself.

But how did she end up

lying on a marble floor

in a freezing bathroom

with her head under the toilet?

How about this?

Sunny wakes up miserable.

Second marriage is over,

children are leaving home.

What's to live for?

But when she was found, her nightgown

was hiked over her waist.

Exactly. How did it get there?

OK, let's say she's standing

at the sink. She has to pee.

At exactly the same instant,

the drugs hit,

her body convulses,

she grabs the nightgown.

- I don't buy that.

- It does seem far-fetched.

- So is the truth sometimes.

- Bull!

I think she took the drugs the previous

night. Maybe he saw her take them.

Or she told him she was going to

before they fell asleep.

This time, he wants her to succeed.

Sunny?

Maybe there's some way

he can help her along.

Of course. The open window.

Zero degrees.

But somebody might see her there.

The action of dragging her would

naturally pull up the nightgown.

In this cold, how long

could she survive?

Remember what Sunny said?

"I would've been better off.

You would've been better off. "

...because the law is a blunt instrument.

It is not a rapier. It is a cudgel.

Tomorrow, death penalty. Which

reminds me of the comedian who said

"Why do they call it the death penalty?

It's no penalty. You're out of the game!"

- Good news.

- And more good news.

- The decision came?

- They just announced it.

- Five-zip.

- We murdered 'em.

- Grounds?

- They got the Brillhoffer notes.

And that guilty-man's argument,

search and seizure.

- Federal or state?

- Both.

If it's federal, they could appeal, but

as it's Rhode Island, they can't. We win.

Don't get too excited till

we see Brillhoffer's notes.

We destroyed their medical case, but their

witnesses still carry emotional weight.

Unless the Brillhoffer notes show

that they've changed their stories.

Good afternoon, sir.

- Let me get that for you.

- Thank you.

- You have Brillhoffer's notes?

- Yes.

- Well?

- They're not what we hoped.

I knew it.

They're much better.

No one mentioned insulin

when they first talked to Brillhoffer.

Plus, Maria told him that, when

she supposedly first saw insulin,

she couldn't even read any of the

labels. They were all scraped off.

- What does this mean?

- It means...

that if there is a second trial,

we can be confident.

Both the medical case and

their witnesses are now highly suspect.

Ah!

Darling, this is Alan Dershowitz.

Yes, I know. Hello.

Alan tells me...

Well, things look very hopeful.

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